Small Business Owner

Strategic Partnerships for Small Business



One of the biggest strengths that small and medium-sized businesses have over their larger corporate competitors is the ability to engage with the local community in truly authentic and personalized ways. This is commonly exemplified quite clearly through the relationships you build with customers and clients. However, an alternative opportunity for community engagement — both incredibly powerful and frequently overlooked — exists in the form of other local organizations....

Surviving Low Cash Flow – 3 tips and tricks to keep your business afloat until better times arrive. 


The holiday season is here, and the official start of Winter is right around the corner. For winter-oriented businesses such as ski resorts and coat/jacket manufacturers, these months probably represent peak season — a time with lots of sales, success, and cash flow. At the same time, summer-oriented businesses such as ice cream shops and water-gear rental facilities are likely dealing with the down season. Relatively few sales are...

Remote Teamwork

There are many benefits to working with remote employees and contractors — from reduced payroll costs to increased efficiency to schedule flexibility and much more. However, challenges such as coordinating teamwork and managing the legal status of your employees can also arise. If you do opt to work on a project with a remote team, then you may find the following 5 tips helpful. • Simplify, clarify, and assign....

Legal Product Laws and How they Affect Your Organization

In 1963, the Equal Pay Act prevented wage discrimination based upon sex across the United States. One year later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 expanded those protections — forbidding any employer from discriminating against workers based on “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” Additional federal laws would eventually protect workers based upon pregnancy status, genetic information, bankruptcy, military service, disabilities, age, and citizen status, as well. State...

Staying Compliant with New Ban the Box Laws

Across the nation, state and city governments are passing laws forbidding employers from inquiring about criminal record status until late in the hiring process. In fact, even the federal government has taken a position — federal employee applications no longer include questions regarding conviction status. At this rate, it appears as if, sooner or later, criminal records may be added in some form or another to legal non-discrimination lists...

Managing Client Relationships

Staying on positive terms with your clients can be just as important as the quality of your products or services. Retaining customers is about more than just giving them good value on a good product — it is also about being perceived as convenient, reliable, and willing to go the extra mile. Here are a few simple tips that can help you manage customer relationships more effectively: Manage Customer...

What to Do When An Employee Breaks the Rules

Whether it’s a habitual bad apple committing another infraction, or even a model employee making a sincere mistake, employee discompliance is never an easy topic for employers to deal with. After all, workplace morale, employer-employee relations, staff completeness, and even legal actions all potentially lie in the balance. However, such issues cannot be ignored — especially when they are serious and/or ongoing in nature. In this article, we will...

Techniques for Better Productivity

For most small business owners, the old phrase “so much to do, so little time” rings frustratingly true. With a virtually endless amount of tasks to deal with, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Of course, giving in to such feelings is oftentimes the worst thing one can do. Dwelling on feelings of discouragement or frustrating generally leads one to being even less productive, thus furthering a negative cycle. Instead,...

Is Your Company Data Safe and Secure?

Ransomware — a malicious cyber attack in which criminals hijack your personal data and threaten to publish and/or permanently delete it unless a fee is paid — is skyrocketing in popularity. In 2015, roughly 3.8 million ransomware attacks were reported globally. 2016 saw more than 638 million attacks. (In other words, an average week in 2016 saw more than triple the ransomware attacks that occurred in the entire year...

70 Percent of Americans Admit to Going into Work Sick

The only thing worse than an employee with no motivation? An employee with too much motivation! As the title of this article suggests, an estimated 70 percent of the American workforce has gone into work sick at one point or another. More specifically, about 80% of the blue collar workforce and about 40% of the white collar workforce admit to this practice, according to a study published in Alternet.org....